Page 28 - UAE Truncal States_Neat
P. 28

Introduction

       categories and presents a good object for related case studies. It may
       be called a “developing" country; it is a “Third World” country, an
       "Arab" country, an oil-producing country; and it is a Muslim State.
       The characteristics of each category are features of the UAE, but
       there are no more similarities between the UAE and other countries
       in these categories than there are vital differences, making the UAE a
       special case within most of these categories. While it shares many of
       the problems which developing countries face, the most ubiquitous
       of them all, poverty, is no longer a problem for the UAE. Most other
       Third-World countries have vestiges of some form of colonial
       administration; the UAE was strongly but only indirectly influenced
       by the British interests in the region.
         This study is meant to serve the dual purpose of helping the
       interested outsider to understand the historical perspective of the
       UAE's present social and institutional complexity and also of
       offering the preoccupied local administrator in the Emirates a
       systematic interpretation of events leading up to the present
       situation.
         Last but not least, this study will probably provoke controversy        !j
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       leading to further specialised social studies for the benefit of all who
       care for the well-being of the people in the UAE.
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